How to: Update Kpowersave -> better Battery Management

Hi all,

This topic is around the forums for quiet a long time. see http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2585
I was very disappointed about the Kpowersave manager which comes with linpus. Nearly everything was stripped down!
So i decided to replace the linpus package with a "real" kpowersave package.

• First of all you have to install the new fedora-release 8-6 package which can be found in the package manager. This installs actual yum configs which resolve a lot of dependency problems. Then you would need yum-utils for downloading. Open a Terminal and use following commands:
  
  Code:

  sudo yum install fedora-release yum-utils
  sudo yumdownloader kpowersave
  sudo rpm -U --force kpowersave*

  [/*:2cm8lb3g]
• Now its time to restart and you should see the new battery icon in the taskbar indicating that new Kpowersave
  is up and running.[/*:2cm8lb3g]
• Finally right click the icon an configure it to your needs.[/*:2cm8lb3g]

After you are running the new kpowersave version you might notice that power off via the power button does not work.

• To fix this you have to edit /etc/acpi/events/power.conf.
  
  Code:

  sudo mousepad /etc/acpi/events/power.conf &

  [/*:2cm8lb3g]
• Change the action= line to:
  
  Code:

  action=/sbin/shutdown -h now

  [/*:2cm8lb3g]
• After restarting, power off via the power button should work.[/*:2cm8lb3g]

gr33tz,
Tybor

 

Tybor: does this actually work? I have tried upgrading kpowermanager before, and while the interface has changed, I didn't actually get more configuration options out of it. (Edit: woops that didn't sound at all like what I intended I was just wondering since I've tried this earlier if you've had better luck than me...)

I had to resort to installing gnome-power-manager, which I've documented here:http://aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=2702

 

Hi annafil,

Yes it worked exactly like i described it with all available options.
Perhaps someone can verify on a new system because mine is patched a lot.

... I think i have to make a clean install again

gr33tz,
Tybor

 

ok doing backup right now and then going to try the upgrade.. would be sweet if that worked, much easier than what i've been doing

 

Hi annafil,

I have tested it now with a clean installation and it works without problems.
I have updated the instructions.

gr33tz,
Tybor

 

Just tried mine too - works fine now.. maybe I got me a bad kpowersave version last time Yay!! Cool

 

Thanks for this Tybor, I followed your instructions to the letter and it works 100%. Now I have much better control over the various power options

 

Thats brilliant, cheers

 

Work great! getting 3H on battery Little bug : The power button doesn't shutdown the computer now :/ Little frustrated ^^

 

Look in the settings of Kpower, you can choose what the power button does.

 

Working great here too ... a very worthwhile improvement, not only in terms of longer battery life but also much more configurable!

 

The update worked for me but is the icon supposed to flash (orange atm for me) and is there anyway to turn it off?

 

Hi Aaron101,

The orange flashing is the indication that the battery is below the warning level.
The level can be adjusted in the kpowersave options when you right click the icon.

gr33tz,
Tybor

 

Thanks Tybor! Managed to find where to adjust the warning levels and the icon is a lot less irritating now.

 

Hi,
Got it working also. Thanks, it seems better.

I notice that you can no longer click on the power button to go into sleep mode. Anyone know how to fix this?

Jon

 

I think you can fix that by reading the first page of this thread.

 

I had the power button set for shutdown. That doesn't work and neither does the logout dialog option. So I figured that nothing worked, but I see that the suspend to ram option does work. That is good enough for me.

Jon

 

Hi hiker_jon,

I have updated the HowTo to fix the thing with power button. Actually this is only a quick and dirty fix,
which only allows to power off via the power button and ignores other settings from kpowersave.
Better way would be to parse the settings file for the actual configuration and decide what to do.

gr33tz,
Tybor

 

Thanks for this guide, the updated kpowersave certainly is a great improvement when it comes to battery life, as well as the amount of options and details that are supplied.

 

Thanks Tybor,

This works, but is a little ugly (garbage gets shown on the screen).
The shutdown is pretty fast compared with what happens when you shutdown via the panel. Is it safe? I worry that it is not doing some stuff that the other shutdown is doing.

By the way where is the kpowersave config file?

Jon